Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Planted Tank Forum forums, you must first register.
Please enter your desired user name, your email address and other required details in the form below.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

Location

Your Location. As precise as you feel comfortable with.

Security Question

While balancing on a piece of wood, two inches by four inches known as a 2x4, John and his friend Sally both spotted a dalmatian inside of a truck with sirens. The animal with John and Sally is a _ _ _?

Insurance

Please select your insurance company (Optional)

Log-in

User Name

Remember Me?

Password

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Additional Options

Miscellaneous Options

Automatically parse links in text

Topic Review (Newest First)

05-28-2013 06:38 AM

vvDO

What were your water parameters prior to adding the fish and shrimp? Mainly ammonium, nitrites and nitrates. It's possible your tank was not fully cycled to begin with.

05-28-2013 04:09 AM

UberSquid

That's way too much prime. You only need one ml per 10 gallons. The cap holds about five ml. Get some disposable pipettes, you can pick up a bunch online for just a few dollars, it will make life a lo5 easier iń the long run.

05-26-2013 02:05 AM

TopShelf_Symbiosis

I do a 50% water change every Sunday. I have not missed a water change yet. There have been weeks where I did a 25% change before the Sunday change. I start by turning off my filter and regulator, then I change normally into a buck. I dump the bucket and fill it with luke-warm water, and mix in a cap of seachem prime.

Honestly, you probably would be best off starting with a non-CO2 tank...things do grow slower, but you have much more time to respond to any problems. For your tank right now, it seems like your problems are compounding and it's getting out of control. Focus on getting your filter right like somewhat said. Keep the mollies in there to get the tank through the cycle. Your 2213 should probably be on the floor and NOT your desk (safety...). You should also read this post on maintaining your filter:

I would probably ditch the CO2 long term. If it fluctuates, you'll continue to kill shrimp and encourage algae growth.

Thanks for the reading material. In retrospect starting with a low-tech tank would have been prudent. But I already have the solenoid regulator and tank. I am going to tough it out with CO2. You can see in my last post that my bps is less than 1 and what the time cycle is like for the solenoid. And you can see in the picture that the 2213 is on the floor. An advice on keeping shrimp in a hi-tech tank? I don't plan on putting anymore in until I find an equilibrium

Nitrate and Nitrite levels are still high. I have cut back on the ferts a little. I'm thinking my filter is still going though the cycle. But this doesn't explain why the shrimp died with the finnex px360, as the 2213 was added after the shrimp massacre.

05-26-2013 01:22 AM

TopShelf_Symbiosis

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimmytruong87

1) you do not understand how to take care shrimp
2) you use too much CO2

Harsh. Im trying my best. I might not be a shrimp expert, but this is my first tank. I have done some studying and talked with a few people in person about shrimp care. I know they are delicate creatures and sensitive to pH, temp and other adverse water parameters.

I am curious what makes you so sure I am using too much CO2? I am at less the 1 bubble per second. The CO2 comes on 2 hours before the light and turns off two hours before. And my drop checker is green.

Honestly, you probably would be best off starting with a non-CO2 tank...things do grow slower, but you have much more time to respond to any problems. For your tank right now, it seems like your problems are compounding and it's getting out of control. Focus on getting your filter right like somewhat said. Keep the mollies in there to get the tank through the cycle. Your 2213 should probably be on the floor and NOT your desk (safety...). You should also read this post on maintaining your filter:

I would probably ditch the CO2 long term. If it fluctuates, you'll continue to kill shrimp and encourage algae growth.

05-23-2013 09:02 PM

somewhatshocked

If you replace your filter media, you lose all of the beneficial bacteria. If you've replaced it, that's why your tank is going through a cycle and why your shrimp died.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TopShelf_Symbiosis

Hey Somewhat,

Thanks for the imput. It could have been poor filter maintenance or disturbing the soil. I plants that huge mat of HC, and I did not clean out the filter for 2 months. But I though I might have been ok because I only had fish in it for a few weeks at the time of the shrimp genocide. Is there one you think might be the main cuplrate? You don't think upping the dose was to blame. I am just trying to get a better understanding. Is a monthly filter cleaning called for, with new medium and stuff? I planed on doing a filter cleaning every other month.

05-23-2013 07:52 PM

jimmytruong87

1) you do not understand how to take care shrimp
2) you use too much CO2

05-23-2013 05:56 PM

ernest

in the secon picture what is spiral thing that I see inmany CO2 tanks ?

05-23-2013 05:19 PM

TopShelf_Symbiosis

Hey Somewhat,

Thanks for the imput. It could have been poor filter maintenance or disturbing the soil. I plants that huge mat of HC, and I did not clean out the filter for 2 months. But I though I might have been ok because I only had fish in it for a few weeks at the time of the shrimp genocide. Is there one you think might be the main cuplrate? You don't think upping the dose was to blame. I am just trying to get a better understanding. Is a monthly filter cleaning called for, with new medium and stuff? I planed on doing a filter cleaning every other month.

The tanks has taken some big steps. I added and then removed some ludwig. The leafs were falling off and with the addition of a very small powerhead, to ward off green dust algae.

For a while I was having hard time with the green dust/glass algae and surface film. I read that poor circulation could cause this, so I added the powerhead for more flow. I also upped my ferts by 2 times. KNO3 went from 0.4 g to 1 g, KHPO4 from 0.05g to 0.1g, and K2SO4 from 0.4 to 1 g.

During the algae battle I was also playing with the scape. I added a laying drift wood piece, removed the flat rock and tilted the big rock up.

After dosing on this schedule for a week, and the gda clearing up, I thought i deserved to get some fauna in the tank. My friend LeMoine,who posted above, gave me some cherry shrimp, and I picked up 3 Dalmatian Molly, tagging along is an unknown fry.

Everything was looking great. The shrimp were happy eating left over algae and the molly where exploring the tank and chasing each other. I was so pleased I wanted to get another shrimp breed. So after about a week of happy cherry and molly, I picked up 4 Amano from my regular aquarium store, along with a mat of HC. I added the shrimp and planted the HC. During the planting the substrate started to get stirred up and the water got a little cloudy.

This is where things turn ugly, I wake up the next morning to find one dead Amano and three dead Cherry. By the next day every single shrimp was dead. Thankfully the moly still look happy. I am starting to think that my filter isn't working correctly or just weak. Since putting the filter on the desk to use the glass pipes, the filter wasn't putting out enough water. The out flow was just a trickel and my water test show very high ammonia, nitrate and nitrite. Plus it was hard to prime and the filter, and would not prime itself. So I picked up an Ehiem 2213!!!! This thing is a beast! I love it. But my water tests are still off the charts. I don't think it is CO2 related, because my drop checker is reading green.

What do you think of the new scape? What happened to my shrimp!? Thought on Ehiem or Finnex canister filters? Was I dosing to much, was it disturbing the substrate or something else that is causing my water test to show deep red and purple?

05-06-2013 06:33 PM

Alaskan Fishface

For sure you can reuse your plants! I do that all the time.

This thread has more than 15 replies.
Click here to review the whole thread.